


The Days Are Just Packed

by never_love_a_wild_thing



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, Growing Up, Kid Fic, Kid Mason, kid liam
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-23 00:55:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15594660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/never_love_a_wild_thing/pseuds/never_love_a_wild_thing
Summary: Liam and Mason's childhood adventures in Beacon Hills





	1. A Lunchbox Full of Dirt

**Author's Note:**

  * For [parttimehuman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/parttimehuman/gifts).



> This is going to be a series of relatively unrelated events in Liam and Mason's childhood. If you have anything you would like to see written about from either of their childhoods, let me know!
> 
> Also, this will be from anyone's pov, but it will mostly be about Liam and/or Mason.
> 
> Finally, the title is the title of a Calvin and Hobbes book, so I don't own that, just like I don't own Teen Wolf :D I'm just borrowing them for a while!
> 
> Anyways, enjoy!

As far as Jenna knew, it had been a normal day at school for Liam. He had stopped at home just long enough to dump his backpack on the front step, yell hi to her through the front door and then take off down the street with Mason. Jenna would have been a lot more concerned if he hadn’t been with Mason. At least that boy had a little bit of common sense. She shook her head, drying her hands on the dish towel and then went out to the front step to bring Liam’s things inside.

The street was empty when she looked around, but she could hear Liam’s familiar excited shouts coming from the Hewitt’s back yard, so she smiled fondly, shaking her head, and slung the little blue backpack over her shoulder, letting the screen door fall shut behind her on the late spring day.

She unzippered his backpack on the island in the kitchen, pulling out his Take Home folder to look for school notices and permission slips. The lunch calendar for May was inside on a sheet of pink paper, so she took the purple April calendar off of the fridge, replacing it with the new one. Next she checked his planner, knowing that in third grade, Liam should be starting to take on more responsibility for his own homework, but also knowing better than to let herself be fooled by a nine year old boy who insisted that he didn’t have any homework so that he could play for longer.

It was pretty much what she had expected: a math worksheet, reading for fifteen minutes, and page three of his spelling packet, which would be just so much fun. Liam hated spelling. It frustrated him, and a frustrated Liam tended to be more difficult to deal with than she had expected. They were trying, though.

What she had not expected were the contents of Liam’s lunchbox. He was usually pretty good about eating his whole lunch. Occasionally Jenna would find his carrot sticks uneaten (which she really couldn’t blame him for some days), and on one memorable occasion, Liam had left his Go-Gurt open in his lunchbox. He had explained that he was saving it for later because he didn’t want to waste food because in social studies they read an article that there were kids who didn’t have any food. It was hard to stay mad at Liam as he explained the ins and outs of social injustices as understood by a third grader, even as she was trying to get yogurt out of all of the nooks and crannies of a Ben 10 lunchbox.

Instead of any of that, however, she opened the battered lunchbox to a bunch of dirt, as far as she could tell three snails, two worms, and countless smaller bugs. She stepped back from the island, a hand coming to cover her silent squeal of disgust as Liam banged in through the front door.

“Liam Eugene Dunbar!”

“I’m just looking for my bugs!” Liam told her, ducking into the kitchen, “Oh, there they are!”

“Stop right there!” she looked him over, “You’re _covered_ in dirt! What have you been doing?” she demanded, “Oh, Liam. Is that blood?!”

Liam wiped at his face unconcerned. “Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you, I lost a tooth! Look!” He pulled his lip back with a grubby hand.

“And where is it?” she asked, hands on hips, “Is that in your lunchbox too?”

“No,” Liam rolled his eyes, which was another thing she couldn’t complain about, since he had gotten that from her too. “I told you, I _lost_ it.”

Jenna sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Okay, what are you doing with a lunchbox full of dirt and bugs?”

“They’re my pets!” Liam explained, “I got them from the playground during recess. Usually I put them in my pockets but Mason said they probably don’t like that, so I put them in my lunchbox instead.”

“Okay,” she said again, “Alright, go take a shower and I’ll put these outside.”

“But – “

“I’ll find a safe place for them, don’t worry,” she found herself saying. “And when you come downstairs, you need to get a start on your homework, okay?”

“I don’t have any homework,” Liam replied automatically.

“Yes, you do. I looked at your planner. If Mason’s parents say it’s okay, you two can do homework together.”

“I don’t think he can come over,” Liam said candidly on his way up the stairs, “We already had to apologize for playing in the hole their neighbors are going to put their pool in, so I think he might be in trouble now.”

Jenna’s eyebrows rose, ready to give Liam a lecture himself, but then the phone rang and she sighed. It was almost definitely the Hewitts. At least she always had someone to commiserate with.


	2. The Milk Man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for any mistakes, I just looked this over very fast between writing it and posting, it, so let me know if you see any mistakes, and I'll try to fix them as quickly as I can.
> 
> As usual, huge shout out to parttimehuman for all of the amazing ideas that inspire this fic and also for creating the most adorable [aesthetic](https://flyde.tumblr.com/post/177071348186/jenna-sighed-pinching-the-bridge-of-her-nose) as well! :D
> 
> Enjoy!

“Just be back before dinner!” Mom yelled after him as he swung through the screen door and down the front steps, picking up his bike from where he had tossed it into the front lawn after school and untangled the helmet strap from the handle bar. He used to think it was way cooler to ride his bike without a helmet until David had told him all about how some kid had done that and then come into the ER with his skull cracked open. Liam was pretty sure that wearing a helmet was the coolest thing ever now.

He fixed the helmet tightly onto his head and then hopped onto his bike, taking the shortcut across the neighborhood to see if Mason was home. It wasn’t until he stopped in front of the Hewitts’ house that he realized that Mason had said he was leaving right after school to visit his grandparents. Liam felt bad for him. Sure, grandparents were nice, but playing with Liam had to be more fun.

He took off again at a breakneck pace, scouring every inch of the neighborhood for someone his age to play with. Mostly, though, they were really little kids, or high school kids, who Liam didn’t want to play with anyways. Instead, he stopped by Mrs. Greenberg’s who had the cutest dog Liam was pretty sure he had ever seen and sometimes let Liam play with it. Sure enough, Joey was outside, rolling around in the grass as Mrs. Greenberg worked in her garden.

“Hi, Mrs. Greenberg!” Liam called.

She looked over her shoulder and gave him a friendly wave. “Hi Liam! Are you here to give Joey his exercise?” she asked cheerfully.

“Yeah!” Liam said, abandoning his bike and helmet on the sidewalk behind him and going over to Joey, who was jumping around in excitement, pink tong lolling out of his mouth. “I like how he smiles,” he told her as he tangled his hand in Joey’s curly brown fur, “I don’t think most dogs smile like that, do they?”

“I don’t know, Liam,” Mrs. Greenberg said, “But I think you might be Joey’s favorite person.”

Liam smiled, petting Joey a little longer while he licked at Liam’s arm, and then crossing the yard to pick up the nearly ruined tennis ball.

He played with Joey for a while until Joey got tired and then gave him a few more pets.

“Hey Mrs. Greenberg?” Liam asked, watching one of the neighborhood’s cats creep along the sidewalk across the street, eyeing Liam and Joey warily.

“Yes Liam?” she said patiently.

“Do those cats have owners?” he asked. Mrs. Greenberg sat back on her heels and looked over her shoulder at the cat across the street.

“Some of them do,” she told him, “Some of them come around because people leave food out for them.”

“Oh,” Liam said, his mind processing this information. “What do they eat?”

“Cat food or tuna. Milk can be a nice little treat for them too. Don’t put the bowl too close to the house though, or they might be scared to come and eat it,” she said.

Liam nodded. “Bye, Mrs. Greenberg! Thanks for letting me play with Joey!”

He gave Joey another scratch behind the ears and went back to his bike, pulling his helmet on and riding away as Mrs. Greenberg called out her goodbye after him.

Liam went straight home. It was close to dinner time, so he put his bike in the garage where it belonged and then went into the house. His mom wasn’t in the kitchen, so Liam headed straight for the fridge, pulling out the nearly full half gallon of two percent milk, then getting a stack of plastic bowls out of the cupboard and carrying them back outside.

“Hey, Liam,” David greeted him in passing as he got out of his car.

“Hi David!” Liam called over his shoulder without stopping. He was on a mission.

The first place he found was under the bushes at the end of the yard. He was pretty sure that was a place that cats would like, so he pulled one of the bowls off of the stack and placed it on the ground, nearly hidden under the bush, and filled it almost to the brim with milk. Cats deserved a lot of treats, he was pretty sure. Animals never did anything wrong. Usually, it was people who didn’t understand them or people who were mean to them that made them do bad things back.

The next spot was around the side yard, where Liam filled the bowl to the same height. Then two in the back yard, and one more in the side yard. Liam went back in the back door and slipped the nearly empty bottle of milk back into the fridge, feeling like he had done a very good thing.

He did some more of his homework in front of the TV for a while, getting up once he had finished his math worksheet and going into the hall to take it upstairs.

“Liam!” Mom called from the kitchen. Liam changed directions and followed her voice.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“David said he saw you with the milk earlier. We had almost a full bottle and now it’s almost empty. What happened?” she asked.

“I wanted to give the cats a treat!” Liam explained, “And there are a lot of cats so I had to give them a lot of milk!”

Mom sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“You can’t say that giving cats a treat is a bad thing!” Liam argued.

“No, Sweetie, that’s a very nice thing for you to do, but they probably don’t need a whole half gallon of milk,” she said gently, “Maybe we can just start leaving a little dish of cream or tuna juice outside for them.  I think they would like that.”

“Oh,” Liam said, thinking about that, “Okay. I guess I should go dump out all of the other bowls of milk, then.”

“All of the other bowls?” Mom frowned in confusion, “How many are there?”

“Five.”


	3. The Best Skater I Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A tiny bit bloody in this chapter, but really just scraped knees and scraped hands.
> 
> I didn't edit this one at all. Sorry! But again, let me know if there are really terrible mistakes and I will go back and edit! :D
> 
> Enjoy!

Liam sat down and started to pull at the straps on his skates. Even _those_ were complicated. Seriously, who would even want to do something as stupid as inline skating anyways? Other than Mason, obviously. But Mason was really good at it and Liam really wasn’t.

“Are you done already?” Mason asked, skating over to him.

“Yeah, this is stupid,” Liam told him, “I’m just going to ride my bike.”

“It’s not stupid,” Mason told him, “You’re just not good at it.”

Liam stuck his tongue out at his best friend and wrenched the skate off of his foot, attacking the next one immediately. When he was free of the death traps, Liam shoved his sneakers back onto his feet, and pulled the bike off of Mason’s lawn.

“Hey, I bet I can pull you behind me on my bike!” he said excitedly.

Mason thought about it. “We could tie a jump rope onto your bike and then I can hold onto the other end of it,” he suggested.

“Yeah! Good idea!” Liam followed Mason back into his garage, where they rummaged through the toy bin, untied a pair of jump ropes, and then took the longer one out to Liam’s bike, Mason skating carefully down the slight incline of his driveway.

Liam tied one end of the jump rope to his bike and then got on as Mason picked up the other end.

“Go slow at first, okay?” Mason yelled to him as he pushed down on the pedals, starting to bike slowly down the street, Mason’s weight making pedaling a little harder than usual.

Liam looked back over his shoulder and grinned. “Faster?” he asked.

“Only a little bit!” Mason yelled back, a huge smile on his face.

Liam pedaled a little harder, finally finding a speed that was fast enough for Liam not to have to work too hard and slow enough for Mason not to start screaming. They went all around the neighborhood, waving at their friends and neighbors and parents.

“Let’s go down the hill on Cherry Street!” Liam yelled back at Mason, feeling very confident about Mason’s skating abilities.

“Liam, no!” Mason said, sounding terrified, “That’s too big!”

“You can do it, Mase!” Liam assured him, “You’re the best inline skater I know!”

“I’m the _only_ inline skater you know!” Mason pointed out, and Liam pulled him towards Cherry Street and the top of the biggest hill in the neighborhood.

“Ready?” He asked, pausing at the top to look back at Mason.

“No!” Mason said, his face ashen.

“It’ll be fun, I promise!” Liam assured him, and then kicked of down the hill.

At first it was amazing. Liam loved going fast on his bike down big hills. He could hear Mason screaming behind him. That was funny at first too, but then Mason fell. And kept tumbling down the hill, wheels of his skates still spinning.

“Mason!” Liam yelled, squeezing the breaks on his bike to slow down and then jumping off, running to where Mason was laying on the ground, knees, elbows, and palms red with blood. “Are you okay?” he asked.

There were people running down the hill behind them – Liam’s parents, he realized, David with a first aid kit in hand.

“That was a pretty big spill, huh Mason?” David said, kneeling down next to them. Mason nodded, tears streaming down his face.

Liam watched as David unwrapped a sanitary wipe and started dabbing at the places where Mason was bleeding. Mom was on the phone a little father away, telling Mason’s parents what had happened.

“It’s okay,” David assured Mason, “It doesn’t look too deep. I don’t think we’ll have to amputate.”

Mason sniffled out a laugh as David finished cleaning his wounds and pulled out some gauze. Liam looked at the open gashes on Mason’s knee fascinated.

“Can I touch it?” he asked David, finger hovering over Mason’s knee.

“No, Liam!” David said sternly, cutting off some gauze and starting to dress Mason’s wounds.

“Maybe – I’ll have some really sick scars,” Mason hiccoughed.

“You might,” David agreed, “Some real battle scars. You probably get a lot of them hanging out with this one.” He nodded at Liam.

Liam looked at Mason, who had stopped crying, but was all bandaged and sad anyways. “I’m sorry, Mason,” he said quietly, “I shouldn’t have made you go down the hill.”

“It’s okay, Liam,” Mason said, “I wanted to.”

David sat back on his heels and Mason pulled Liam into a ginger hug.

Behind them, Jenna had hung up and was about to start lecturing but paused at the sight of her son and his best friend. The scene was too sweet to hold onto any anger. She would have to lecture Liam later, but for now, he was learning from a more powerful teacher: friendship.


End file.
